Foundation Grants to Individuals Online Guided Tour

This tour will take you through a sample search using Foundation Grants to Individuals Online. For purposes of clarity, the search terms we refer to here will be set off in brackets. Brackets should not be used when searching Foundation Grants to Individuals Online.

Once you've signed up for Foundation Grants to Individuals Online and have logged on with your user name and password, you'll arrive at your personal search home screen. Click on the Search button to proceed.

You are now on the Foundation Search page. From this page you can search by entering criteria in any of the indexed search fields listed here, which are: Foundation Name, Foundation State, Foundation City, Fields of Interest, Types of Support, Geographic Focus, Company Name(s), and School Name(s).

This page also includes a Text Search field that allows you to free-text search across the entire file.

Let's try a sample search where we try to identify foundations that award scholarships to individuals in California.

To do this we begin by navigating to the search field entitled Types of Support. Notice that clicking the heading Types of Support opens an index, which displays as a list of links on the same page you already have open. From that list, select [Scholarshipsto individuals] and it will be automatically added to the Types of Support search field.

Note: In addition to using the indexes by clicking on a search field name, you also have the option of typing directly into a search field. Once you have used Foundation Grants to Individuals Online and have come to know the index terms, you may find this to be a more efficient way of searching for certain fields. For instance, instead of clicking on Types of Support and navigating to [Scholarshipsto individuals] and clicking on the term to add it to the search field, you may prefer just to type [Scholarshipsto individuals] into the search field. For the purposes of this Guided Tour, we'll use the indexes where they are available, since that is generally the most accurate way to search.

Now let's limit our search to foundations that award scholarships to individuals in California.

Click on the heading for the search field Geographic Focus. Select [California.] As with the other indexed search fields, selecting the index term adds it to the Geographic Focus field.

Foundations that make grants nationally will also make grants to individuals in California so from the same Geographic Focus list of index terms, click on [National] and then [National; international.]

Notice that when you select more than one term in a given search field, Foundation Grants to Individuals Online assumes you are seeking information related to either term, so it automatically links your selected terms with the Boolean operator OR. If you wish to use another Boolean operator (such as AND, NOT, or NEAR), you would need to replace the OR. For more on Boolean operators and how to use them, consult the Help file.

Click the Search button to generate a results list that meets the criteria we have specified: foundations that make grants for scholarships to individuals in California.

A new page is displayed, presenting our results list. Each foundation name in this list links to a profile of that grantmaker.

The list default display is alphabetical order by Foundation Name. The results list displays the Foundation Name, Foundation City, and Foundation State. The results list can be re-sorted by clicking on any of these three column headings. Clicking the same heading a second time reverses the sort, say from ascending to descending order.

Let's review a profile. Click on a foundation name in the results list; the foundation profile opens in a new window.

The size and content of a foundation profile depends largely on the scope and nature of the funding programs and the availability of information on the grantmaker. Some profiles may include a purpose and activities statement, fields of interest, the geographic focus, and limitations of the funder. Additional information may include a description of the application procedure, financial data, and a list of recently awarded grants. Where available, the profile will also have a link to a PDF of the most recent IRS filing for that foundation.

When an individual record is displayed, and there is more than one record in your results list, you can use the Previous Record and Next Record links for easy navigation back and forth through the list.

For more on searching Foundation Grants to Individuals Online, consult the Help file or see the Search Tutorial.